Metronomy - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Mon 25 Apr 2011

Danceable electropop from new album The English Riviera

There's a sweaty buzz about Cabaret Voltaire even before Metronomy step on stage, but it takes a little while before the band themselves really warm up. While Joseph Mount's gang of electropop maestros are never less than competent and the quality of their album releases has been consistently high, there's a precision and sparseness to some of the material from latest record, The English Riviera, that doesn't quite translate to being pounded out in a sweaty club. While 'She Wants' remains one of the sexiest sounding songs ever committed to record, the band are far from recreating its languorous delicacy in a live setting.

That small gripe aside, Metronomy still won us over with the usual mix of caddish tenderness over lush electronic reelings. The band hit their stride about five songs in with 'The Bay,' which is textbook Metronomy: an insistent, disco-tinged rhythm section and that trademark giddy fuzz of a keyboard sound that kicks in as the chorus of 'it feels so good' erupts. And it does. After that it's 'Heartbreaker' from 2008's Nights Out, and from there on in there's little let up in the pace as they rattle through 'My Heart Rate Rapid,' 'On the Motorway,' recent single 'The Look,' 'A Thing for Me' and finally triumphant shout-along 'Radio Ladio.' That feeling that every song could be a single shows off just how consistently lacking in filler Metronomy's last two albums have been.

Lovers of the new album may find some of their favourites a little lacklustre when performed live, but if you love a good beat, you can't fail to be won over by Metronomy, so it's in recognition of the way they made our feet move that they earn that fourth star.